As concerns mount with the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District staring down the barrel of a $13 million deficit in FY25, the borough assembly took it upon themselves to draft a resolution imploring lawmakers to consider during the upcoming legislative session a “meaningful and timely” increase to the Base Student Allocation (BSA).
Awareness has largely been raised about the district’s looming deficit leading up to the next legislative session where state lawmakers will put their heads together to come up with a FY25 budget. A deficit–along with the lack of a BSA increase–is nothing new, having become a recurring fiscal problem in recent years, however, previous deficits were offset by leftover pandemic relief funds. With that well now dry, though, there is no safety blanket and time is running out for the state to address the dire need for additional education funding.
One seemingly obvious solution is an increase to the Base Student Allocation–funds provided to school districts per student enrolled–a budgetary move many thought would have already happened considering there has been no meaningful BSA increase since 2017. At that time the allotment was $5,660, and despite an unprecedented inflationary rise prompted by the pandemic, that amount has only increased by $30.
“Last year myself and Mr. Ribbens went to Juneau and the general consensus while we were there [was] that the BSA was going to be increased,” said Assembly President Brent Johnson during a legislative work session prior to the assembly meeting. “And then I think it was at the tail end of the session that all of a sudden this went away.”
Assembly Vice President Tyson Cox said a big reason he sponsored the resolution is the negative impact a regular deficit has on the community every year. “I think it’s degrading our community because every year that this happens it gets nasty, and everybody’s mad, and it’s not for the purposes they should be. They’re mad at our school district for having to make tough choices. I don’t think that’s always fair. I think that they have to make some choices because we require them to give us a balanced budget, and I guess this year with no extra monies, how nasty is that balanced budget going to look?”
Already shots have been fired around the state regarding education funding, especially since Governor Mike Dunleavy’s proposed budget included no increase to the BSA, a budgetary point which was quickly backed by the recently appointed Department of Education and Early Development Commissioner, Deena Bishop. In response, Anchorage School District Superintendent, Jharett Bryant, blasted the pair for their stance. “The quality of education that districts are able to provide is being eroded by inflation and the state is shirking its constitutionally mandated duty to maintain a system of schools that thrives,” Bryant said in a prepared statement.
The assembly’s resolution notes the lack of an inflationary increase to the BSA over the last decade, stating, “the FY12 value of the BSA in today’s dollars would be approximately $1200 more than Alaska school districts are currently receiving,” and adds, “an inflationary increase matching this amount would ensure Alaska school districts could continue current educational programs with no anticipated cuts.”
Borough Mayor Peter Micciche, who said his philosophy on budgets is “based on increasing costs over time,” added that he would like to see language added to the resolution which addresses inflationary needs in the future. “We should go to the legislature as a whole, the power base and both bodies, and let them know that it is an expectation that they catch us up to a reasonable level like the other departments and that we have an inflationary adjustment to avoid this somewhat Armageddon on a regular basis.”
The next legislative session begins on January 17.
